GRAINS-Chicago wheat drops 1% after rally; corn, soybeans down

4 Min Read

SINGAPORE, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Chicago wheat futures lost ground on Monday as the market eased
from its highest since late-June, although tightening world supplies and rising prices in top
exporters limited losses.
Soybeans slid after two sessions of gains, while corn dropped for a second day.
FUNDAMENTALS
* The most-active wheat contract of the Chicago Board of Trade was down 1% at $5.27 a
bushel, as of 0051 GMT. The market on Friday climbed to $5.33 a bushel, the highest since June 28.
* Soybeans gave up 0.2% to $9.32 a bushel and corn fell 0.5% to $3.89-1/4 a bushel.
* Wheat drew support last week as worsening crop prospects in southern hemisphere exporters
Argentina and Australia, as well as weather-hampered spring wheat harvests in North America, have
shifted attention away from large global stocks.
* Australia's wheat production this year is expected to drop to 15.5 million tonnes, National
Australia Bank said on Friday as it cut its forecast to well below recent market estimates of around
19 million tonnes.
* In Argentina, recent rains have not been strong enough to help wheat fields after weeks of
dryness, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange said on Thursday.
* Egypt last week bought 405,000 tonnes of Russian, French and Ukrainian wheat at an
international tender at prices that were higher than what it paid a week earlier.
* Soybeans drew support from strong weekly export sales data along with worries about U.S.
yields, particularly in light of recent snowfall in Minnesota and North Dakota. The U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA) is scheduled to release updated crop monthly crop estimates on Nov. 8.
* In its weekly export sales report, the USDA put export sales of U.S. soybeans in the week
ended Oct. 10 at just over 1.6 million tonnes, at the top end of trade expectations.
* Still, Chinese importers have been busy booking fresh purchases of soybeans from Brazil this
week, despite the White House announcement that China had agreed to buy up to $50 billion of U.S.
farm products annually during trade talks last week.
* The purchases from Brazil, rather than the United States, show that Chinese buying has been
driven more by price than policy since last week's preliminary trade agreement that U.S. President
Donald Trump hopes will be signed next month.
MARKET NEWS
* Asian stocks were steady in a cautious start to the week on Monday, while the British pound
fell following a delay to a crucial vote on Britain's divorce from the European Union.
DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
0600 Germany Producer Prices MM, YY Sept
Grains prices at 0051 GMT
Contract Last Change Pct chg Two-day chg MA 30 RSI
CBOT wheat 527.00 -5.25 -0.99% +0.29% 494.83 71
CBOT corn 389.25 -1.75 -0.45% -1.39% 381.17 50
CBOT soy 932.00 -2.00 -0.21% +0.05% 907.49 63
CBOT rice 11.91 $0.00 +0.00% -0.58% $12.02 50
WTI crude 53.62 -$0.16 -0.30% -0.57% $55.24
Currencies
Euro/dlr $1.116 -$0.001 -0.09% +0.33%
USD/AUD 0.6856 0.000 +0.01% +0.48%
Most active contracts
Wheat, corn and soy US cents/bushel. Rice: USD per
hundredweight
RSI 14, exponential
(Reporting by Naveen Thukral, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)